Rome receives 10 million visitors a year, and approximately 9.5 million of them go to exactly the same places: the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon. The remaining 500,000, the ones who wander east into Testaccio, south into Garbatella, or across the river into the quiet streets of Monteverde, discover a different Rome: a city of neighbourhood markets where the stallholders have been selling the same artichokes to the same families for three generations, of Roman pizza (the thin, crispy, rectangular pizza al taglio, sold by weight, eaten on the street, and completely unlike the thick, doughy Neapolitan pizza that the tourists are queuing for), and of the ancient Appian Way, the Regina Viarum, the Queen of Roads, where 2,000-year-old tombstones line a road so quiet you can hear the lizards rustling in the grass. Here is the Rome that the guidebooks miss.

Rome, Not As You Know It

• Testaccio, the real Roman food: The tourists eat in Trastevere; the Romans eat in Testaccio. This wedge-shaped neighbourhood south of the Aventine Hill, named for the Monte Testaccio, an artificial hill of 53 million broken amphorae (the ancient Roman olive-oil containers, discarded here between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD), is the gastronomic heart of Rome. The essential experiences: a plate of rigatoni alla carbonara at Flavio al Velavevodetto (a restaurant built into the side of the amphora mountain, the view of the ancient pottery shards through the glass floor while you eat one of the best carbonaras in Rome is surreal and wonderful. ~€12–15 a plate); a supplì, a deep-fried ball of risotto rice with a molten heart of mozzarella, from the takeaway window at Supplizio (the Roman street food at its finest. ~€3); and the Mercato Testaccio (the covered market, the best food market in Rome, the stalls of fresh pasta, the porchetta, the boneless, herb-stuffed roast pork, and the mozzarella di bufala, still warm from the morning’s production. Go at lunchtime. The market closes by 2pm). Do not: eat near the Colosseum, the restaurants there are the worst in Rome, the menus are in six languages, and the prices are double what you would pay in Testaccio. Walk 15 minutes south and eat with the Romans
• The Appian Way on a Sunday: When the cars are banned on Sundays, the Appian Way (the Via Appia Antica) becomes one of the most beautiful walks in Italy: 2,300 years of history under your feet, the basalt paving stones worn smooth by the passage of legions, saints, slaves, and emperors, the tombs of the Roman nobility lining the road, the tomb of Caecilia Metella (a massive cylindrical mausoleum, the best-preserved tomb on the Appian Way, the inscription still legible: “To Caecilia Metella, daughter of Quintus Creticus, wife of Crassus”), the Circus of Maxentius (the best-preserved Roman circus in the world, a chariot-racing track, largely intact, built by the Emperor Maxentius in the early 4th century and abandoned after his defeat by Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge). How to do it: hire a bicycle from the Appia Antica Caffè (~€4/hour), cycle the 4 km from the Porta San Sebastiano to the tomb of Caecilia Metella, and stop for lunch at the Giardino di Ninfa (a beautiful garden restaurant in a former railway station, the pasta with wild asparagus and the view of the Appian Way are both excellent). The traffic-free Sunday is the essential experience, but the road is quiet on weekdays too
• Quartiere Coppedè, the strangest neighbourhood in Rome: Under the radar for 30 years, the tourists have finally found Coppedè, but it remains one of the most extraordinary architectural ensembles in Europe: a tiny, fantastical neighbourhood of 26 buildings designed by the architect Gino Coppedè between 1915 and 1927, a fever dream of Art Nouveau, Gothic, Baroque, and Ancient Greek influences, the frog fountain in the Piazza Mincio (12 frogs spouting water, the centrepiece of a square that looks like it was designed by Gaudí on an absinthe binge), the Spider Palace (the Palazzo del Ragno, a spider in mosaic above the entrance, the symbol of industriousness and perseverance), and the Fairy Villa (the Villino delle Fate, a fairy-tale confection of turrets, balconies, and frescoes). Coppedè is free, walkable in 30 minutes, and utterly unlike anywhere else in Rome. Getting there: Metro B to Policlinico, then a 10-minute walk north. Go in the morning, the light on the facades is beautiful before 11am